Name: Cabbages
Ingredients: Cabbages; ½ tablespoon vinegar; 1 teaspoon sugar; Coarse sea salt

Why it works: Cabbage and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,924 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Cabbages

Ingredients

Cabbages
½ tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
Coarse sea salt

Directions

Cut cabbages in halves or quarters and wash them thoroughly.
Remove dead and bruised leaves and trim the stalks.
Soak cabbages in cold salt water with vinegar to remove insects.
Blanch cabbages in boiling water for 5 minutes, then refresh in cold water.
Boil cabbages in salted water with sugar until tender, testing with a skewer.
Drain thoroughly before serving.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Cabbage + vinegartop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,924 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,806 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Cabbage + sugartop 30% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,037 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).